Capitol Ministries’ Ralph Drollinger, who teaches several members of President Trump’s Cabinet that the Bible mandates conservative public policies, has been invited by right-wing Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernández to create a Bible study for his cabinet.
According to Drollinger, the request came after Hernández visited the White House and “was so impressed with the spiritual maturity of President Donald Trump’s Cabinet Members and how their biblical principles and values are strengthened and fortified through the Capitol Ministries’ Cabinet Bible study, that he asked to have an identical study for his cabinet.”
The New York Times has described Hernández as “a highly polarizing figure” who “amassed power over many of the country’s weak institutions during his first four-year term.” His brother was charged by U.S. prosecutors last year with conspiracy to smuggle cocaine into the U.S.The government’s arrest last month of a journalist who had written critically about Hernández and his family led the Committee to Protect Journalists to ask the government to suspend his sentence and “repeal laws that restrict press freedom.”
Hernandez’s government declared him the victor in his hotly contested 2017 re-election bid after the count was halted for a day and a half with his opponent leading. The announcement was followed by protests that were violently shut down by security forces. The Organization of American States said the result could not be trusted and called for a new election, but the Trump administration recognized Hernández’s victory. In a letter to Capitol Ministries supporters this week, Drollinger calls Hernandez “a believer” and said that “what is happening right now in the Central American nation of Honduras” is one of the “best examples” of the “incredible effect” that Capitol Ministries is having on world leaders.
Drollinger’s letter says that the “faithful leaders” reached by his ministry “are having a great impact in furthering God’s kingdom across the globe in ways fantastic, including some that have left us stunned, such as the amazing story of the new Honduras ministry.”
More from Drollinger’s letter:
I love to watch the way God works among His people. President Hernandez’s request came after he met with Members of Donald Trump’s White House Cabinet in a recent visit to Washington, D.C. Those Members attend the Capitol Ministries White House Cabinet Bible study, and they suggested to the president that he begin a ministry like the one they attend every week. He took their suggestion to heart. When we traveled to Honduras to launch a ministry to members of Congress, President Hernandez held a reception for Capitol Ministries in his presidential residence where he asked me to help him create a Bible study to his presidential cabinet.
As Right Wing Watch has documented, Drollinger teaches that his particular “very conservative” interpretation of the Bible and Christianity is superior to others. While Honduras, like other Latin American nations, has experienced a surge of growth and influence among evangelical Christians, the nation is still home to many Catholics, which is notable given that Drollinger has described the Catholic Church as “the world’s largest false religion.”
Among the other pearls of wisdom that Drollinger teaches:
- the government’s job is to “quell evil”
- governments and leaders “must send a constant message that sin will be punished”
- the Bible requires Christian public officials to support the death penalty
- the Bible doesn’t give government the job of caring for the poor and entitlement programs have no “biblical authority”
- liberal Christians aren’t really Christians, they’re “simpletons”
- “radical environmentalism” is a “false religion”
- “God only hears the prayersof leaders and citizens who are upright, who live righteously through faith in Jesus Christ”
- “righteous” people with government positions should not “compromise Biblical absolutes” and should hire only other “righteous” people
- homosexuality and marriage equality are “illegitimate in God’s eyes” and it is sin for society to “endorse” it
Drollinger also teaches members of the U.S. House and Senate at weekly Bible study meetings, and his written Bible studies are shared with public officials at all levels of government. Capitol Ministries has aggressive global expansion plans as well as an agenda to have a ministry in every state capital and municipal government. The group launched a ministry to Mexican legislators last year.
The Trump administration, urged on by Religious Right activists and a group of Republican senators, recently announced that it would cut funding for the Organization of American States because it said the organizations were violating U.S. law by advocating for abortion rights.
